---
title: Proverbs 24:21 (JPS 1917) — My son, fear thou the LORD and the king, and meddle not with them th… · tree and pragmatics
description: My son, fear thou the LORD and the king, and meddle not with them that are given to change; Who acts: thou. Proverbs 24:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.707/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Proverbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/) / [chapter 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/24/) / [24:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.24.21/) / JPS 1

# Proverbs 24:21 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
My son, fear thou the LORD and the king, and meddle not with them that are given to change;

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thou · **What happens:** fear, not meddle, give, change · **To what, where:** LORD

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Proverbs 24:21 · JPS 1917 in the English of the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 translation, from Mova's open Bible corpus. The page gives the sentence's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, parsed by Mova and checked by a teacher model — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thou), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it. The original of the verse links back to its own tree and to the Targum.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = jps:PRO:707
# text = My son, fear thou the LORD and the king, and meddle not with them that are given to change;
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	vocative	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	fear	fear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	meddle	meddle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fear** | infinitive | thou | the LORD and the king |  |  |  | My son *vocative* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer lord=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **meddle** | infinitive | thou *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with men *= man* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | present · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **change** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The Hebrew of this verse {#hebrew}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
יְרָֽא־אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה בְּנִ֣י וָמֶ֑לֶךְ עִם־שׁ֝וֹנִ֗ים אַל־תִּתְעָרָֽב׃

[Proverbs 24:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.24.21/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:707` of Mova's parse database.

**The tree and the speech act** come from Mova's cycle: the small model's draft, read by a large model as teacher, passed by Mova's gates (Elamur Cosmic License). **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the chapter read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence of the chapter.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Proverbs 24:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.706/)
- next →: [Proverbs 24:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.708/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 24:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.24.21/)